


Healing Over Time

by kryptonianmenace



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Gen, Muteness, someone cuts Carlos' throat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:54:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27847214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kryptonianmenace/pseuds/kryptonianmenace
Summary: “He may be a brat, but I’m not going to just let him die,” Cruella scoffed. “Get the first aid supplies. We’ll try to see if we can stop the blood flow.”Someone cut Carlos' throat. This is the story of how he learned to communicate in the aftermath.
Kudos: 41





	Healing Over Time

Carlos de Vil was only thirteen when Claudine Frollo slit his throat.

He didn’t know if she had been aiming to kill, and he didn’t care to find out. The fact was, Claudine had gotten mad he wouldn’t hand over the half empty box of spaghetti noodles he had grabbed from the barge, his throat had been slit, and he had survived, and that’s all that mattered to him.

Carlos didn’t remember getting home. He moved on autopilot as he stumbled home, his mind replaying the event that caused blood to gush from his throat, blood he was desperately trying to cover with his bunched up shirt. He didn’t process where he was going, or that everyone on the Isle saw him shirtless with a blood-soaked shirt to his neck. All he could think about was Claudine’s cruel laugh, the flash of steel, the cold metal against his throat, the pain.

God, the pain.

He entered Hell Hall noisily, something he never did if he could help it, and collapsed in a heap at the bottom of the front hall stairs. Tears were flowing down his face as his heart ached with fear.

He barely registered it when Cruella found him, her yelling at his loud entrance cut short as she saw his throat. She was silent a moment as he stared tearily up at her, shock keeping them both from reacting.

“Horace! Jasper!” she finally screeched. “The boy is injured!”

“What’s it matter?” Horace drawled as he meandered into the room, stopping dead in his tracks when he caught sight of Carlos.

“He may be a brat, but I’m not going to just let him die,” Cruella scoffed. “Get the first aid supplies. We’ll try to see if we can stop the blood flow.”

* * *

Carlos was dizzy for days, struggling to do his chores, but he insisted on doing them.

“Runt, you should be resting,” Jasper said, trying to pull the rag Carlos was holding away from the boy. “You nearly died.”

Carlos narrowed his eyes, he didn’t want pity. He wanted to make it up to his mother for saving him. He had to keep up with his chores, not only because it was what he had always done, but because he had to show her she didn’t make a mistake.

He yanked the rag back, but stumbled from his light-headedness as he shook his head.

Jasper sighed. “Don’t make me get your mother involved.”

Carlos glared, shaking his head again and clutching the rag like a lifeline.

“Then stop and rest. Go back to bed,” Jasper said.

Shaking his head again, Carlos crossed his arms.

Growling, Jasper lunged and picked the boy up, tossing him over his shoulders carelessly. “That’s enough. You’re going back to bed.”

Carlos’ head was spinning and he clutched his head as nausea built in his stomach from the rough handling. After a moment, he began pounding his fists on Jasper’s back to try to free himself.

Jasper swung the door to the closet Carlos slept in open, and set Carlos on his feet. “Go on, get in,” he said, shoving him, not enough to knock him into the bear traps, but enough to move him slightly.

Carlos scowled, climbing over the traps carefully before settling on his pile of clothes that he used as a bed.

Jasper smirked. “You leave here for anything other than when I come get you for dinner, and I’ll make you regret it. Capiche?”

Carlos nodded and then the door slammed shut. He heard the lock click and waited a few minutes before trying the closet’s second door that led into Cruella’s room. It was locked as well.

Huffing, Carlos curled up on his bed of clothes and closed his eyes.

* * *

Carlos didn’t go back to school for a full week. People stared at him, especially when he kept his head down and didn’t respond to any of the teachers.

After his third class, he bumped into someone, flinching at the contact.

“Holy shit, I heard you died,” Jay said. “They said someone cut your throat and you bled out. Nearly everyone saw it.”

Eyes widening, Carlos gripped his throat at the reminder. He backed up in fear when Jay leaned closer.

“Is it true? Did someone really cut your throat?”

Carlos removed his hand and Jay whistled when he saw the scar. “That’s rough. Dope you survived, though. Not many can say that. Who was it?”

Carlos mouthed Claudine’s name, but Jay scrunched up his face in confusion.

“No idea what you said, man. Can you not talk?” Jay asked.

Shaking his head, Carlos avoided eye contact by looking at his shoes.

Jay hummed. “Sucks.”

Carlos shrugged, not looking up.

* * *

“You should be dead,” Claudine growled, stalking towards Carlos.

Immediately, Carlos dropped into a curled up ball of fright, arms protecting his head.

Bystanders watched with amusement as Claudine kicked him in the side and he just curled up tighter.

“You’re lucky I don’t care enough to finish you off, de Vil,” Claudine said with a sneer. “Let this be a lesson to you to not steal from me.”

Carlos nodded his head frantically, his arms still lifted defensively.

No one moved to help him up after she walked away, everyone returning to what they had been doing before.

* * *

Carlos dropped his bag in fright as he caught the glimpse of a blade out of the corner of his eye. Quickly recovering his bag, he turned to see what had caught his eye and he saw Uma threatening one of the merchants with her sword.

Ducking his head and clutching his bag, he headed home, giving Uma a wide berth.

* * *

Mal was one of the better known kids on the Isle, partially because of her mother and partially because she was ruthless. She and Jay ran the school, what with their stealing and constantly picking fights. Carlos was terrified of her.

Yet he was standing in front of her and Jay as she silently read the note he had agonized over the night before.

“What’s it say?” Jay asked, leaning back in the chair of the desk he was in. They were in an empty classroom, school having just ended. Mal shot him a dirty look before clearing her throat.

“It says he wants to make a deal. Our protection in exchange for him building and fixing things for us,” Mal said. She turned to Carlos with a smirk, gesturing to his throat. “Trying to avoid a repeat, huh?”

Face flushing, Carlos nodded. He shifted uncomfortably as Mal stared him down in consideration.

“Who did it?” Mal asked.

Carlos quickly scrawled out Claudine’s name on the notebook he had out for this conversation.

Mal snorted. “Crazy bitch. Why’d she go after you?”

 _I had food from the barge. She didn’t,_ Carlos wrote, shrugging as he turned the page for them to read.

“You should really learn sign language,” Jay said. “There’s a book with pictures of the signs in the library. Mal and I learned it for stealing.”

Carlos nodded warily, glancing between the two in front of him.

“What kind of things can you build? I want to know what we get out of this deal,” Mal said.

 _I’ve built generators and heaters and stuff like that, but I can try my best to build just about anything. Right now I’m trying to figure out how to get more channels on the radio so we don’t have to listen to that stupid royal channel all the time,_ Carlos wrote.

Mal hummed. “We could use some of that stuff in the hideout,” she said. “Jay, what do you think?”

Jay shrugged. “I’m down for whatever. It’s not like we’re losing out if we say no, but we do gain things for the hideout if we say yes. Up to you.”

* * *

The protection started the next day, and Carlos was on edge the entire time. It wasn’t until Third cornered him, demanding his homework, that he saw the results of his deal. Mal slammed the taller boy against the wall when he grabbed Carlos by the shirt, the girl growling.

“Don’t touch him,” she snarled, and everyone in the hall’s head shot towards her as Carlos hunched in on himself to avoid their stares.

“What do you care?” Third asked with a sneer.

“He’s part of my gang now. You mess with him, you mess with me,” Mal said. She shoved Third once more. “You remember what I did to Junior when he tried to mess with my crew, don’t you?”

* * *

“We’re gonna teach you how to fight,” Jay said.

Carlos tried not to stare at everything in the hideout, but it was his first time there, and Mal’s murals were masterpieces. Gaping, he pointed at the painting of Mal and Jay, cocking his head in a question.

“Yeah, Mal did that.”

Carlos mouthed the word ‘wow’ and took it all in.

“You’re lucky Mal’s not here yet,” Jay said with a laugh. “Your reaction would just go to her head.”

Carlos stuck out his tongue and flipped Jay the bird.

Jay tilted his head back in a loud laugh. “Spunky, I like it. Now, you ready to learn how to fight?”

Nodding, Carlos shifted into a hesitant fighting stance.

Jay hummed. “Feet just a little bit wider. Don’t want you getting knocked over,” he said as he demonstrated.

Carlos followed along as Jay explained proper ways to punch and kick, pointing out common weak spots and places to aim.

Their first spar ended with Jay winning, to neither of their surprise.

* * *

“You need to learn to get past your fear of knives, C,” Mal drawled from the couch in the hideout. “One day, someone’s gonna come at you with one, and you need to be able to defend yourself.

Carlos tensed, pausing in his building of the heater. He didn’t look at her, but he signed that he knew she was right.

“We can start small,” she said. “How about you try just holding mine for now?”

Slowly, Carlos picked himself up and made his way over to her.

Mal made sure to keep her movements steady and easily traceable as she pulled out one of her hidden knives, flipping it to hold the blade lightly as she offered the hilt to Carlos.

Hand shaking, he took the knife, just staring at it as he worried his lip.

After about a minute, Mal gently took the knife out of his hand and returned it to its hiding spot.

“You did good. We’ll try for longer next time,” she said.

Carlos nodded, rubbing his arms to soothe himself.

* * *

After six months, Carlos was comfortable enough to carry a knife with him. The knife was his birthday gift to himself. He had stolen it off Freddie Facilier, a feat he was quite proud of.

He showed it to Mal and Jay with a grin, signing to them to explain where he had gotten it.

Jay gave a low whistle. “Damn ‘Los, you’re getting ballsy.”

“Come on, let’s get to the hideout,” Mal said. “I wanna show you something, and then we can see how good you’ve gotten with that knife.”

When they reached the hideout, Carlos came to an abrupt halt in shock.

His face had been added to Mal’s mural.

“You like it?” Mal asked with a grin. “I did it yesterday.”

Carlos gave a smile as he let out a silent, disbelieving laugh.

“You wormed your way into the top ranks of the gang,” Jay said, leaning heavily on Carlos’ shoulder. “Bout time it showed in the hideout.”

“Happy Birthday, ya big nerd,” Mal said.

Carlos signed a thank you with a grin.

* * *

He met Evie a month after his birthday.

“Is that who I think it is?” she asked when she sat next to him, having just been booted from her previous seat.

He signed Mal’s name in question, remembering to fingerspell and not use the name sign he had given her. He then nodded, not trusting her to know the hand sign for yes.

Evie’s face lit up at the use of sign language.

“Mom taught me sign,” she signed to him.

“Not deaf. Mute,” he signed back.

“Do you mind if I still sign while we talk? It’s good practice to keep up the skill,” Evie said, face hopeful.

Carlos shrugged.

“I’m Evie,” she said, signing her name with a smile.

He signed his name back to her.

“Is Mal still mad at me?” Evie asked, signing as she spoke.

Carlos rolled his eyes. “Yeah, she’s always mad,” he signed.

Evie winced.

“C, get over here,” Mal snapped from her seat. “Gothel wants us pairing up again so she can know what you’re saying.”

Carlos gathered his things without question, ignoring the concerned look Evie gave him. He stared down Zevon until the boy hastily moved from his seat next to Mal to offer the seat to Carlos.

“This happens every time we have a Cruella unit,” Zevon muttered as he took the seat next to Evie.

“Why is Mal the one to interpret for him?” Evie asked.

Zevon rolled his eyes. “Her and Jay are supposedly the only ones who can understand him. They’re probably just making it up.”

“I can understand him,” Evie said, a bit too loudly, and Mal whipped her head back to glare at her.

Carlos nudged Mal until she turned her glare to him. Raising his hands in surrender, Carlos sat back in his seat with an eye roll.

* * *

Carlos knew something was up at the party Mal made him throw, and he almost felt bad when he saw how excited Evie was to be included.

He knew Mal and he knew this was somehow revenge, but he couldn’t figure out what.

But then Mal started making a stink about seven minutes in heaven, and gestured to the fur closet, and he widened his eyes.

She locked Evie in and Carlos scowled.

“No blood on furs,” he signed.

Mal rolled her eyes. “Then do something about it,” she said.

So he went through the back door of the closet and released a shaking Evie, who glared at him.

“Mal was mad at you,” he signed. “Revenge.”

“I just want to leave,” Evie said. 

* * *

Carlos furrowed his eyebrows as he stared down at his device. It had broken through the barrier the night before, after the party had ended. To think such a little thing could do so much.

But now, Mal and Jay were talking excitedly about how it must be a homing beacon for the Dragon’s Eye, and how they could use it to track it down.

“We’re gonna need Evie for this,” Mal said.

Jay looked at her questioningly and Carlos rolled his eyes.

“Revenge?” Carlos signed.

Mal just smiled and pressed a finger to her lips.

* * *

The riddle was simple:

_Ink spot in the snow_

_Or red, rough, and soft_

_Black and wet, warm and fast_

_Loved and lost-- What am I?_

The gargoyles wouldn’t take Carlos’s signs as an answer, and they wouldn’t let the others answer for him. But it was clear they were asking about Cruella.

Mal growled in frustration, kicking random rocks on the ground, while Jay swung his machete in boredom. Evie stared at Carlos in contemplation.

Carlos steeled himself and stood in front of the gargoyles.

Forcing his vocal chords to work he whispered out the first answer: “Puppies. Do you need names?”

Instead of answering, the gargoyles parted to reveal the next set, the four kids rushing to them as more of the bridge opened up.

_Like a rose in a blizzard_

_It blooms like a cut_

_A red smear_

_Her kiss is death_

It took some thinking, but eventually Evie figured out the answer was fire and ice, the name of Cruella’s lipstick brand, and Carlos repeated the answer, his voice hoarse and small.

The gargoyles parted once more to reveal the final set.

_Dark is her heart_

_Black like the sky above_

_Tell us, young travelers--_

_What is her one true love?_

The others argued about what it could mean behind him, but Carlos gulped. He knew the answer immediately.

“Her furs,” he said, voice still forced out.

The gargoyles parted and the others jolted out of their argument in shock.

“Carlos, did you answer it?” Jay asked.

Carlos nodded.

“I didn’t know you could talk,” Mal commented as they finished crossing the bridge.

Carlos gave a wry grin. “Same here,” he whispered. “Hurts.”

“Then stop talking, idiot,” Mal said.

“What was the answer?” Evie asked.

“Her furs,” Carlos said.

“I said stop talking!” Mal said.

* * *

“I’m talking when we get to Auradon,” Carlos said once they got in the limo set to take them off the Isle.

“You said it hurts to talk, though,” Evie said.

“I don’t want them thinking I’m weak,” he said.

“You still have our protection, C, you don’t need to worry about that,” Mal said.

Carlos rolled his eyes. “I don’t want to be the weak link.”

“You’re not,” Jay said. “Besides, isn’t it better to have them underestimate you?”

“It’s better they don’t know we know sign, so we can sneak around more easily,” Carlos said.

“Fine, you’ve got a point, but don’t overwork your throat. We don’t want you hurting yourself.”

Carlos nodded.

* * *

Ben’s eyes widened when he caught sight of the scar on Carlos’ throat, but he wisely didn’t comment. He just continued his speech and led them inside.

Doug, however, did not have that tact. 

“What happened to your throat?” he asked.

Mal, Jay, and Evie glared at him, but Carlos just shrugged.

“Got in a fight over some food. I lost,” he said, voice scratchy.

Doug’s eyes widened at that, before he quickly changed the subject.

* * *

When Fairy Godmother finally noticed the scar on his throat, she demanded Carlos go to the nurse.

“Dear, by the sound of your voice, it sounds as though you haven’t healed correctly. The nurse will help you set up an appointment with a doctor who can help,” she said.

“Why?” he asked.

“We don’t want you hurting your throat more. The doctor will be able to come up with ways to help you,” Fairy Godmother said.

Carlos shrugged. “Okay, I guess.”

* * *

“The doctor’s considering petitioning to get permission to use magic to heal my throat,” Carlos said, sprawling on his bed next to Evie, who was doing homework on his bed. Mal and Jay were at the table, all eyes on him. “But he also thinks it can heal on its own given time.”

“What are your thoughts on it?” Evie asked.

Carlos hummed. “I don’t know. It’d be nice to not have my throat hurt whenever I talk, but I don’t really trust them to do magic on me.”

“Especially when it’s near your throat,” Mal said. “I wouldn’t trust anyone either.”

“I’d trust you, Mal, but I doubt they’d let you be the one to do it,” Carlos said.

“I also don’t have enough experience to do a big spell like that,” she said.

“We could use it as an excuse to grab the wand?” Jay suggested. “Just tell them you only trust Fairy Godmother to cast the spell and then grab the wand from her.”

“Carlos wouldn’t be able to use the wand himself, though. He’s the only one of us with a non-magical parent,” Evie said.

Carlos hesitated. “Do we even really want the wand, anymore?”

Mal glared at him. “Of course we do.”

“Is it really what we want, or is it just what our parents want?” he said. “Because I’ve been watching you and you all seem so much happier since coming here. We all are.”

Jay and Evie avoided eye contact, while Mal glared at each of them. Finally, she settled her glare on Carlos again. “And what would we do if we just… gave up on the wand?”

“We enjoy our lives?” Jay asked.

“Avoid our parents?” Evie asked.

“Fine,” Mal snapped.

* * *

They had love spelled Ben before they decided to call off the plan, so Carlos helped Mal make the anti love potion brownie.

She still got to sit up front at the coronation, because Ben was forgiving.

The coronation was going fine, until Jane grabbed the wand.

Carlos, Jay, and Evie all ran for the stairs, making their way to the floor to help.

Mal snatched the wand from Jane, but before she could hand it to Fairy Godmother, Maleficent made her entrance.

There was a lot of arguing, a showdown, and eventually Maleficent was turned into a lizard.

Carlos groaned. “Can we please stop having crazy things happen to us?”


End file.
